A community mental health center was opened in Cahul on December 18. This is the third center of the kind set up within the project “Support for the Reform of Mental Health Services in Moldova”, which is implemented in four pilot districts, namely Cimislia, Cahul, Orhei and Soroca, IPN reports.
The new center has a hall for occupational therapy and a treatment hall. The personnel include a psychologist, three psychiatrists, three medical assistants and a social worker.
These supervise over 2,000 persons, about half of whom suffer from mental retardation. Almost 500 have organic mental disorders such as dementia, epilepsy and post-traumatic stress disorder. Among other diseases suffered by these are schizophrenia, neurotic and somatoform disorders and depression. According to officials of the Ministry of Health, the center will enable to reduce the number of patients in psychiatric hospitals and to avoid institutionalization.
The Reform of Mental Health Services in Moldova is based on the Flexible Assertive Community Treatment (FACT), which is successfully used in the UK, the Netherlands and the United States. It implies the provision of mental health services with the support of a multidisciplinary team.
The four-year project is implemented by the Netherlands Institute of Mental Health and Addiction (Trimbos Institute) with financial support from the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation. It ends in 2018.
